Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume gets prison

A New York Metropolis decide’s son who stormed the U.S. Capitol carrying a furry “caveman” costume was sentenced on Friday to eight months in jail.

U.S. District Choose James Boasberg stated Aaron Mostofsky was “actually on the entrance lines” of the mob’s attack on Jan. 6, 2021.

“What you and others did on that day imposed an indelible stain on how our nation is perceived, both at dwelling and abroad, and that may’t be undone,” the judge told Mostofsky, 35.

Boasberg additionally sentenced Mostofsky to 1 12 months of supervised release and ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service and pay $2,000 in restitution.

Mostofsky had requested the judge for mercy, saying he was ashamed of his “contribution to the chaos of that day.”

“I feel sorry for the officers that needed to cope with that chaos,” mentioned Mostofsky, who should report back to jail in roughly one month.

Mostofsky was carrying a strolling stick and dressed in a furry costume when he joined the mob that attacked the Capitol. He instructed a pal that the costume expressed his belief that “even a caveman” would know that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.

Also on Friday, a federal decide agreed to postpone a trial in July for members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group charged with conspiring to forcefully halt the peaceful transfer of energy after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

A primary jury trial for five of nine Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy, including group founder Stewart Rhodes, is now scheduled to start on Sept. 26 and is predicted to last about a month. A second trial for the opposite four defendants is scheduled to begin on Nov. 29.

U.S. District Decide Amit Mehta agreed to give protection attorneys more time to prepare for trial but indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant another delay. A number of defense attorneys expressed concern about the attainable influence if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report around the similar time as the primary trial. Mehta stated that wouldn’t be a cause for one more delay, “even when 435 members of Congress begin reading from the report on the courthouse steps.”

More than 780 individuals have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 280 of them have pleaded responsible, largely to misdemeanors.

A Tennessee man, Albuquerque Head, pleaded guilty on Friday to assaulting Metropolitan Police Division Officer Michael Fanone. Head pulled Fanone into a crowd of rioters who beat him, shocked him with a stun gun and stole his badge and police radio. An Iowa man, Kyle Young, pleaded responsible on Thursday to assaulting Fanone, who was significantly injured by rioters and has since testified earlier than Congress in regards to the attack.

More than 160 defendants have been sentenced, including over 60 who've been sentenced to phrases of imprisonment starting from 14 days to five years and three months.

In Mostofsky’s case, federal sentencing tips recommended a jail sentence starting from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors really useful a sentence of 15 months in prison followed by three years of supervised launch.

Mostofsky was one of the first rioters to enter the restricted area around the Capitol and among the many first to breach the building itself, through the Senate Wing doors, in line with prosecutors. He pushed against a police barrier that officers had been making an attempt to maneuver and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot defend, prosecutors mentioned.

“Mostofsky cheered on other rioters as they clashed with police outdoors the Capitol constructing, even celebrating with a fist-bump to considered one of his fellow rioters,” prosecutors wrote in a courtroom filing.

Contained in the constructing, Mostofsky followed rioters who chased Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman up a staircase toward the Senate chambers. He took the police vest and shield with him when he left the Capitol, about 20 minutes after coming into.

Mostofsky ceaselessly wears costumes at occasions, according to his lawyers.

“To put the matter with understatement, the New Yorker is quirky even by the standards of his home metropolis,” they wrote.

A New York Publish reporter interviewed him contained in the Capitol during the riot. He informed the reporter that he stormed the Capitol because “the election was stolen.”

Mostofsky has worked as an assistant architect in New York. His father, Steven Mostofsky, is a state court docket judge in Brooklyn.

“The fact that his father is a judge implies that he should have been better able than other defendants to know why the claims of election fraud have been false,” said Justice Division prosecutor Michael Romano.

Boasberg said not one of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s family and friends explain how he “went down this rabbit gap of election fantasy.”

“I hope at this level you perceive that your indulgence in that fantasy has led to this tragic state of affairs,” the judge added.

Aaron Mostofsky pleaded guilty in February to a felony charge of civil disorder and misdemeanor charges of theft of government property and coming into and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. Mostofsky was the primary Capitol rioter to be sentenced for a civil disorder conviction.

Mostofsky’s attorneys requested for a sentence of house confinement, probation and neighborhood service. Defense legal professional Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the crowd” and didn’t go to the Capitol to interfere with the peaceable transfer of power.

“He did things he shouldn't have done,” Smith stated. “But there’s a big difference between an ideologue who is motivated to commit violence and somebody who finally ends up doing dangerous things after they find” themselves in a crowd.